and his family and/or friends still in Russia will suffer for it. Its real easy for those of us without any skin in the game to criticize him but most would do the same thing in his place.

And on a side note, Putin doesn't have the same reputation in Russia that he does in the west (where he's seen as a borderline Bond villain). Over there he was considered the sensible, moderate choice in the last election. One of my former Russian co-workers compared his reputation in Russia to that of Hillary Clinton here in the US.